>> i am mark halperin. >> i am john heilemann. there's something more embarrassing in your office than "downton abbey" decorations. ♪ happy national weatherpersons day. the hiring spree, obamacare plan b, and, oops. david plouffe once said that everyone gets a turn in the barrel, and this week, the barrel was locked, stocked, and smoking. chris christie and his expense account, hillary clinton and her private jets. my question to you as this presidential campaign rolls

around, which of the candidates is going to spend the most time in the barrel? >> hillary clinton is going to spend a lot of time in there. there is tons of investigative stuff to do. the two other people i think have to worry right now are jeb bush, because i think he will emerge as a clear front runner when the fundraising figures come out, and there is a lot of his life the national media has never dug into, and rand paul. rand paul is going to be out there attracting attention, and there is lots to look at. >> i absolutely agree with you. i will add one to the list. chris christie -- if you go back and read the detailed account of the vice presidential vet in 2012, there's a lot of stuff there. people have only scratched the surface of that material various controversies. i think teams are out there mining that stuff, and the papers are waiting for it. he's a big target.

>> how many of investigative pieces about them that put them in the barrel come from journalistic enterprise, and how much come from oppo? in terms of republicans, how much comes from clinton oppo? the second question is how they react. the clintons right now basically sit back. very rarely do their spokespeople comment on the stories. outside groups correct the records somewhat. most of these republicans, when they see in negative peace, they just sit back. >> plouffe's attitude was, you got to hunker down. you are going to have to take it for a while and hope the storm goes away. guys like chris christie and rand paul have the potential to inflame these situations worse. we don't know how the clintons are going to deal with it. in the past, she hasn't dealt with it particularly well. >> governor christie hasn't taken a single question from any reporters since his office walked back and clarified his vaccine position, and since that

"new york times" story about his luxurious lifestyle. it will be interesting to see if he digs himself in deeper. >> the only person who had it worse this week was rand paul. >> the de facto campaigns are bulking up like barry bonds on a bender. jennifer palmieri is leaving casablanca to join hillary clinton's campaign. every day, new hiring news from each one of the presidential hopefuls. so far, with all the hiring that has been done, who is doing the best? >> to move back to our previous question about hillary clinton spending a lot of time in the barrel, she right now is winning the staff sweepstakes by a mile. if you think about the people we've heard about, john podesta the chairman, joel benenson, the chief strategist, and jennifer palmieri -- that is an all-star cast.

she is putting together a very good team. those people are all very able and with the exception of podesta, a lot of them are outsiders, not people within the previous clinton bubble. >> palmieri was pretty deep in that bubble. here is why the group is good. one is, they are no-drama for the most part, and that was not true of the last campaign. the other is, they know a way to win. almost all of those people have worked at senior levels in winning campaigns. on the republican side, you have a lot of people picked off. some people predict the jeb bush would draw the bulk of the top people. you've seen people like rick perry and chris christie and ted cruz drawing very top people on the finance side but also on the staff side.

i will tell you, i think the thing that has gone on under the terrain that is the biggest news is jeb bush on policy. he is building a policy operation that will be serious focused, intense, more like a general election policy operation. >> the bush list, although he hasn't picked up every top strategist, and every republican strategist is going to be in this game, but dave who we talked about before, a huge deal. he's already got mike murphy who, on the basis of what we saw yesterday, is starting to give very good advice to governor bush. danny diaz, a couple of other people, those are good people. the person i know you are most impressed with his rand paul getting mike biundo up in new hampshire. >> it's a quadrennial exercise in new hampshire. karl rove talks about the ideas primary. everybody talks about the money primary. by the end of the year, despite a lot of people saying jeb can't be the nominee, he will be the

winner of the ideas and money primaries. >> we focus on the big guys in the gop a lot. we are going to give a lot of love to two potential candidates who, try as they might to breakthrough, have so far languished, rick perry and bobby jindal. those of their public images are marred by memorable television fiascoes. perry, his 2012 republican debate brain fart, and jindal's state of the union response. neither one of these guys has broken through. do you think either one of them can get in this game? >> i think they can. perry has got a big finance announcement today, about who is going to be helping him raise money. he's an underrated candidate, and he totally gets his margin of error is small. i think he's going to plant himself in iowa now that he's no longer governor. i think bobby jindal, you and i

agree with this, the smartest people we've ever met in or out of politics, and he can give a darn good speech. i think both of these guys are going to be bigger players. >> i don't want to discount the possibility that either one could break through. i will tell you why i'm skeptical. one of them is because perry's margin for error is really small. he's going to make a mistake. they all do something dumb. as soon as he does something dumb, something would be forgiven of every other candidate, everybody is going to seize on that and collect the memories of 2012. bobby jindal is super smart. the thing that discourages me is that he's doing all of the wrong things. what his people are not doing for him is elevating the fact that he is a smart guy. what we have seen him do is lurch as far to the right and do a lot of incendiary things rather than be, i am the policy wonk who can do smart things. i will cover them.

you asked me whether i thought -- i said i'm skeptical whether any of them are ever going to get into double digits. they can, but i'm skeptical. >> the key for me is iowa. the vote is up for grabs, and both of them can spend time on the ground. both of them are among the most likable people in politics. i think both of them will do really well if they spend the time on the ground. >> when one is in the top three of one of our polls, i will buy you a steak dinner. >> the republicans finally think they've got this obamacare thing figured out. orrin hatch, richard burr, and fred upton have come up with what they are calling an alternative to obamacare, which eliminates the individual mandate while preserving many of the popular parts of the law. after long last, have the republicans figured out a way to add an understandable and effective and sensible replace with their call to repeal obamacare?

>> this plan is not a new plan. it is a plan that has been around before. the party did not rally around it in its previous incarnation. we've got to see whether the party rallies to this or not and there's stuff in here that a lot of republicans don't like. they just want to tear obamacare. there are a lot of questions about whether this would insure all americans like every other industrialized country in the world. >> i think there are things in here that are popular and sensible. there are things in here like taxing the benefits of individuals that will be controversial. i don't think this is an area where republicans can win the fight until they have a strong presidential front-runner who talks about health care in a comprehensive way, which is hard to do. the supreme court decision coming after the arguments in a couple of weeks, about whether the law survives, i think that will open the door. right now, this is, like obamacare, too complicated to explain.

>> it's an increasingly entrenched law, and by many measures -- people will hate me for saying this -- an increasingly successful law. the rate of increase is going down. we are covering more people. by a lot of basic metrics, obamacare is working. >> republican said, people are going to see their premiums go up. >> or the economy is going to be destroyed. >> coming up on tax day, some people are going to have complexity and expense because of the law. i don't think the scale will be big enough to open the door for a competing plan, which is sensible in some ways. >> totally agreed. up next, we are going to get revved up with the man that much of the republican establishment wanted to be the party's standardbearer in 2012. what mitch daniels thinks of the 2016 field, next. ♪

>> our guest tonight was the governor of indiana, the hoosier state, and a republican who failed to satisfy the deep craving so many in his party to seize the mantle of the nomination in 2012. today, he is the president of purdue university. governor mitch daniels, thank you for joining us. >> thanks for having me. >> obviously, there is a lot of talk about the president's proposal unveiled in the state of the union to pay for community college. you had a proposal like that when you are governor, paid for in a different way, done at the state level. why not make this a federal thing rather than a state-by-state thing? why shouldn't all americans have the plan that you wanted people in indiana to have? >> i think we can agree that it's a really important goal that every young american receive, first of all, a meaningful high school education, which is something we have yet to solve, and beyond that, community college -- the president is on a good tack when he talks about it.

that will be the right answer for millions of our young or not so young people. i think the way he wants to do it is flawed, maybe not a serious proposal. the very last thing america needs right now is yet another open-ended entitlement. it was just discovered that the student loan program just wrote off $22 billion, the single biggest misestimate in the history of federal government credit. you want to be careful going down another such road. the objective is a good one. i'm glad you brought it up. it is much better to see states like tennessee moving forward, and there are a lot of ways states can do that. >> if the obama plan were implemented, passed into law what effect would that have on public university enrollment? would it have much effect in terms of driving it up or driving it down?

>> we know what happens when you get a huge flood of money, as we have seen, of course, and student grants and loans, all with the best intentions, much like in health care. when a third party starts picking up a lot of the bill when money appears either easy at first or temporarily, the providers tend to raise their prices, take most of the money and leave the purchaser no better off. that has been a big part of the reason tuition has gone up faster than health care in the last couple of decades. >> in our limited time with you, we want to get your take on the people running for president. you're normally reluctant to talk about politics, so we have devised a way. we are going to trick you into doing it, but ease you into doing it. jeb bush you like a lot. go ahead.

>> take your best shot. >> you like jeb bush. he's out there now testing the waters little bit, thinking of running. tell us what you think so far as a former white house political director. what is jeb bush doing well as he introduces himself to the country, and what would you say he needs to do better? >> i'm not going to handicap any one individual. it is a good thing for our democracy that there are going to be apparently a lot of alternatives offered. if you want to know what i think thematically, and what i hope the priorities are for whoever are our two choices, you can look back at the response i offered to the 2012 state of the union. it sums up my thoughts today both about priorities and about the tone of any campaign, about the need to try to draw people together, as opposed to the tendency, which we have seen in

both parties the last few years, to drive cleavages between us. if we are going to tackle the really big problems facing this country of income disparity, of the entitlements, the looming crushing debt that students on the purdue campus are going to inherit, we have to have people willing to bring us together. >> since you don't want to talk about any one of the presidential candidates, we are going to ask you about several. we are not going to try to trick you. >> filibustering didn't work? >> tell us something you think about jeb bush. do you like the color of his hair? anything about jeb bush. >> there is a lot to like. his record speaks for itself. he was a successful governor. he was a uniter.

if i can speak clinically, i think it is a great positive that he understands intimately and personally much about hispanic life in this country, latino life, and of course, is fluent in spanish himself. that's an asset that would be of some value, again, if your hope is to see a more unifying leader and message. >> that wasn't so painful. >> i'm going to ask you about two other governors. you are very familiar with governors. chris christie and scott walker, what do you think about those guys? >> both very courageous. everybody you've asked me about so far, the common denominator is that these are doers. they didn't mark time. they've attempted to tackle the very different problems of their very different states. that is not a complete portfolio

for someone who would be president, but it certainly is a useful attribute and one, of course, that has often been rewarded by the american people. >> how would hillary clinton do by the standards you've laid out? >> she is comprehensively experienced and has advantages that some of the other contenders would have to scramble to match in terms of her exposure to the world and many of the tough issues we are facing in foreign policy. >> would she be a uniter and some of the same ways jeb bush was? >> one can hope so. it is a matter of choice really. i just hope -- again, i found in the one tour i had an elected office, if you want to accomplish big things, you need

big majorities. you need to bring things that people together. it's not enough to win a razor close election, leaving 49% aggrieved and sour. i hope both sides will bring that mentality, despite the many honest differences they will have. >> what is your imitation of bill clinton like? >> pretty weak. he's one-of-a-kind, anyway. that wouldn't be in my repertoire. i'm much more interested in continuing to show, as we think we are at purdue, that higher ed can be affordable and excellent at the same time. the cost of attendance is down for the last two years, the first time in history. we are in the middle of a three-year tuition freeze. we did a nice deal with amazon this week, which is interesting, but also lowering the cost of textbooks by 40%. debt among purdue students has dropped $18 million in the last

two years. we just think that training great engineers, computer scientists at an affordable price is not a trivial contribution to a stronger future in america. >> that is the best of bill clinton imitation i've ever heard. >> i am a big 10 graduate myself. you are the lowest paid president of any big ten university currently. i won't mention the number, but it is a pittance. i'm curious as to what you think about the pay of university presidents. are others in your class overpaid? >> i don't want to make a comment on any other university. i asked for a modest reduction in the pay. i further asked that we put 30% -- it wound up at-risk. i only got an 88% from the trustees. that has attracted another $15,000.

if we are going to have an economy in higher ed, if we are going to ask everybody in the interest of students, remaining accessible to students of all income levels, then i think it's helpful if it starts at the top. >> when we come back a top aide to congressman aaron schock has resigned. we report traffic, weather, sports, news, and school closings, and on that, after the break. ♪

>> welcome back to the "wadr" investigative center -- on your side. tonight, our i-team takes on the case of congressman aaron schock of illinois who is embroiled in a major scandal over the decoration of his capitol hill offices, which had been painted red, and according to some resembled the manner in the

television show "downton abbey." you have team coverage of the maroon magistrate as our high team sets out to ask the question -- does congressman aaron schock watch "downton abbey?" >> the interest and intrigue about congressman aaron schock's red office -- >> congressman aaron schock is getting a lot of interest. >> an abc crew waited for schock on capitol hill because he wouldn't respond to questions or calls about this, the fancy red redo of his congressional quarters. >> the room resembles something from "downton abbey." >> the 33-year-old congressman from peoria claims he has never seen "downton abbey" on tv. the story of his lavish office makeover has simmered since we showed you the pictures taken by a "washington post" reporter.

>> they are in the process of decorating. they were showing it off. >> for the first time, congressman schock is talking. >> what shade of red do you think this is? >> i don't know. it is bright. >> the congressman says he's never been an old, crusty white guy. tonight, he says he has received no calls from angry constituents, only supporters who have told him to hang in there. >> someone in your office said it was inspired after "downton abbey." is that right? >> i learned that when i read it in the newspaper. as taylor swift said, haters are going to hate. >> our i-team is always on the hunt for important stories that matter to you. coming up next, inside the trading room. ♪

>> our i-team is always on the lookout.

you can read about what chris christie needs to do to get back on track. >> up next, "taking stock." sayonara. ♪

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